Series Synopsis
Welcome to
the Usagiyama Shopping District, home to the small, family run mochi shop,
Tamaya, and it’s eldest daughter Tamako Kitashirakawa (voiced by Aya Suzaki).
Tamako loves
her little community and is beloved by all the vendors who she happily
considers her family. Extremely friendly and easy going, there isn’t anything that
can get Tamako down. Everything is as perfect as it can be.
Then suddenly,
daily life gets a little more exciting when a strange talking bird named
Dera Mochimazzi (voiced by Takumi Yamazaki) comes to town. He
claims to be on a journey to find the future bride for his country’s prince.
While initially deadest on seeing his mission through, the relaxed and open
atmosphere of the shopping district, as well as Tamako’s family’s delicious mochi,
turns Dera quite complacent.
No longer caring about his objective, Dera takes up residence in Tamako’s home. Though
unsure why such a strange bird has chosen to attach himself to her, Tamako
quickly accepts Dera. Soon the sight of a cheerful girl with a fat bird sitting on
her head turns into a calling card of the district.
The days
continue on as they always have. Tamako makes everything a little brighter and
Dera makes everything a little more interesting.
Series Positives
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| Tamako |
I liked this
show...and that’s pretty much the gist of this review. Is Tamako Market funny; yes. Is it charming, absolutely. Did I have a
fun time with it; definitely. Was there anything wrong with the show? There are things I can and will talk about, but nothing particularly damning.
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| Dera |
It’s unique
enough in all the right places to make it its own thing. However,
there’s not enough to make it stand out. If anything, Tamako Market could be considered a hidden gem. Too bad
calling it as such is a little strange, since there appears to have been enough
interest when the show came out to warrant a theatrical film. Should the powers at
be allow me to remember this series existence, I’ll be more than willing to check
it out one day.
This show’s main selling point is its cuteness and laid back atmosphere. It’s an incredibly
easy watch and there were times I mistook it for a short form anime since episodes went by incredibly fast. This got me wondering as to why
this show wasn’t short form. It would have been equally as good and maybe even more at home.
To a large
extent, Tamako Market doesn’t have to
be watched in any particular order. A few things may be a tad strange out of
context, but you can more or less pick up exactly what you need to know at any
given time. That or you could simply watch the first episode and you’d be brought
up to speed.
Something else which added to the series' pleasantness was its location. The Usagiyama
Shopping District tried to portray itself as a close knit family and it was successful
in that endeavor. The relaxed setting reminded me of the show Mahoraba, which if you haven’t seen it please do because it’s fantastic. Tamako
Market wasn’t as strong, but many of the same elements were present.
The show’s
main goal is to showcase the life of an easy going community and get a few good
laughs out of you. On both accounts the series achieved what it set out to do.
Commendable since I’ve seen plenty of other anime try to do the same thing and
fail miserably. Simplicity is Tamako
Market’s biggest strength. It doesn’t try to do anything grand and it does
try to be something more than what it already is.
While I mean
that as a compliment, there is a downside to it which I will get to momentarily.
Dera
If there is
one thing about Tamako Market that
will have me remembering it in a few months, it would have to Dera. It has
nothing to do with the fact that he’s a talking bird; I’ve seen and forgotten
many other talking animals before. There were other characters in this show who
were funny and I found them to be enjoyable, but it was Dera who was the most consistent.
What I liked
most about him was his personality or maybe more to the point, his self-inflated
ego and everyone else’s complete dismissal of it. Nine out of ten times, whenever
he opened his mouth he would say something exceedingly pompous, but
every time he did it quickly blew up in his face.
Even with saying many jerky things, the reason why Dera managed to remain a
likable character was because he never said or did anything out of malice. He never had the intention of hurting someone. Dera said what he said and did what
he did because he was mostly full of himself. And again, this would always come back to bite him.
There was something else
he would always do which made up for all his self-entitled comments. Dera always
showed gratitude.
He was
always very aware, and very vocal, that Tamako and her family gave him a place to stay. Even though he completely barged into their lives, Tamako’s
family never treated him as an unwanted annoyance. Well that’s not exactly
true. He was an annoyance, but the kind that could occasionally provide a good bit of
entertainment.
In short,
Dera's the kind of character that might be a handful at times.
However, if he were to leave, you couldn’t help feel a little sad and
maybe even a little lonely. Plus he was able to provide that necessary distraction and at
times clarity whenever things got a little out of hand.
Dera might have been an idiot, but he was their idiot.
Series Negatives
I’ve skirted
around the issue, but I haven’t come out and just said it yet. Tamako Market is a good show and while watching, it is enjoyable. Too bad you’re not going to remember the damn
thing for that long afterwards. There's nothing to this series
that will stick with you.
This show
will make you laugh, but other shows will make you laugh harder. These
characters are okay, but so what? Most of their names and faces I’ve already
forgotten. Tamako’s fared better since her name’s in the title and Dera was the best thing about this show. The setting, the time, and overall premise
isn’t deep and is a little too paint by numbers.
Tamako Market takes place over the
course of a year, but it certainly doesn’t feel like. There are large gaps of
time between each episode. It could have been the dead of winter and then immediately it was summer time.
It came of as if nothing of great importance happened between points. Kind of a problem when you remember that this is a slice of life.
Therefore, what we are already seeing is just that, normal life, a.k.a. not important.
Yet the appeal
of a slice of life anime is taking the mundane and blowing it out of proportion.
Yeah Tamako Market does that, but
it always stayed very safe. It never really took a risk. This wouldn't have been that big
of an issue if the show hadn’t set itself up as if it was going to do something.
There was this
one character, Mochizo Oji (voiced by Atsushi Tamaru) who was Tamako’s childhood
friend. It was painfully obvious that he likes her, but he never did anything about
it. Mochizo was instead oddly distant and always found an excuse to not talk to Tamako.
There was another character, Midori Tokiwa (voiced by Yuki Kaneko) who was also Tamako’s
childhood friend and who also has feelings for her. Midori was a lot closer to Tamako
than Mochizo, but again nothing happened.
In one
episode, it seems as if Mochizo and Midori were going challenge each other to
see who could go for Tamako’s attention. It led to nothing. It led to absolutely
nothing. Why do that? It’s totally okay to not do a romantic subplot if you don’t
want your show to have it. However, what’s the point of even bothering with the
set up then.
It’s like
going on a camping trip. You know it’s going to fun and relaxing; that’s what you’re
expecting. Then when you arrive you also learn that for some reason there’s this giant canon that’s fully prepped, ready to go, and all it needs is for someone
to fire it. Odds are it’s going to be really cool when it goes boom, but nah
weren’t not going to touch it. Well that’s lame. True I didn’t come for the
canon, but since it’s already here why don’t we just do it.
What’s
weirder is the fact that the show did actually do a romantic route, but not
with Tamako. They did it with her sister Anko (voiced by Rina Hidaka) and guess
what, it was really cute. The series proved that it could do it and it had the
means to do it again, but no.
Adding little
things like this may not have made Tamako
Market the greatest thing ever, but at least it would have had more things
to remember it by. As it stands though, thank god for this site. It’s the only thing that’s going to me remind that this show happened and I enjoyed it.
Final Thoughts
Tamako Market was fun and enjoyable. When
you’re watching it you’re probably going to have a good time. At the very least you’re
not going to regret sitting through it. So yes this is a very easy
recommendation.
The
character’s do their part, there are a handful of standout elements, and the comedy is really funny. The series may have a few too
many misused opportunities that shouldn't be here, but what are you going to do?
There’s
nothing here that was done wrong, yet nothing left a mark. Got a night to kill
and just want to wind-down, then Tamako
Market is the perfect watch.
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